


Here, at the End of All Things [Destiny Star Zero]

by Jeredu



Series: Destiny Star [1]
Category: Tales of Destiny
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Gen, inspired by a dream, knowledge of canon isn't really necessary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-19 16:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeredu/pseuds/Jeredu
Summary: "I amnotgiving up," Chal replies evenly. "I am mitigating the damage to the extent and utmost of my ability.  Forgive me if that extent isn't quite as impressive as yours.  I'm just a diplomacy android who was re-purposed into a weapon.”"Don't youdare," Dymlos snaps. "You were always more than 'just' anything.  That's why Harold was special.""Harold was brilliant," Chal agrees calmly. "That's why I'm not going to risk you. She's probably the only person in the galaxy brilliant enough to fix us that far down, and she's gone."





	Here, at the End of All Things [Destiny Star Zero]

* * *

It starts small- a memory he is suddenly unable to retrieve.  Here, a subroutine failing; there, an error in his sensory readout.  As it grows more serious, with time, there is no longer any hiding it.  Even his hardware is now beginning to fail in small ways- not responding smoothly or properly to his input, because his virtual neurons are garbling the message - the code that converts his 'brain' signals into a physical action of his body. It was all Harold's brilliant work, capitalizing on the fact that his consciousness and earliest memories had come from a man named Pierre, mapped digitally and somehow still remembering how it felt to be human.

So, even as Chaltier knows from his glitching diagnostics that the code translating his background ('subconscious' is no longer quite right) commands into movements has begun to malfunction, that his body is a complex piece of hardware responding to faulty signals from a corrupt program... The human part of him, emotionally, recognizes it as something else:  

He is dying.  His body and mind are beginning to fail.

Chaltier also knows that a tech specialist capable enough to assess and repair Harold's complex handiwork would be far too valuable, and someone like that could not be spared out here on the fringe.  He isn't even sure such an engineer exists in the present age.  His hardware could be opened up and reverse engineered, but Harold was the only one who truly understood how their cores worked.  Black boxes though they seemed, Harold Belserius had been their author.

Dymlos had demanded that Chaltier let _him_ run a diagnostic.  Like hell is Chaltier going to make a hard connection to Dymlos and risk corrupting him, too.  While he has yet to discover any virus that might be the root cause, that doesn't mean one isn't  _there_.  The possibility of losing even one Swordian relic is to be avoided at all costs. Chaltier would not risk doubling that number.

He also knows that Dymlos still needs him- needs his skills, in order to complete this mission. Needs Chaltier's vital functions. Chaltier needed to find a way to leave those with Dymlos, to give Dymlos access once Chaltier is incapacitated [ _dead_ , whispers a voice that has no place in a synthetic mind].

 

Chaltier cannot risk a link, so he must accomplish this the old fashioned way- with his fingers, and a keyboard.  He begins writing a program, a rudimentary AI that can manage the vital tasks that he performs.  Aside from the lifeless program, he crafts a design for a shell to hold it (and his user information, access to the same databases, and so many other things.  He can't stop to think about the fact that he's not so much writing a will as he is creating a soulless replacement for himself).

He creates one other thing for Dymlos. Within the sanctuary of a processor connected to nothing, not even Dymlos himself, he creates an encrypted file. His digital vault, his final gift. Within it, he pours his secrets. While a great deal of classified information was known and shared among their five, each of them had also been endowed with knowledge that they are oath-bound to keep in silence, alone, even from each other, as a measure of safety. A puzzle with its pieces divided between five boxes, and none of them knew the shape of the whole. 

So now, Chaltier pours his secrets, his solemn burden, his tasks, his _doom_ , into aether. _Coordinates_.  A string of symbols which in combination became a _key_.  A passage from an ancient codex, long destroyed before the war centuries past. The same codex referenced, he knows, by an oracle.  He had asked, once, about the nature of these things.  Not for their content, but out of human curiosity and despair. Igtenos, knowing such discussion was forbidden, acquiesced to the lost tone in Chal's synthesized voice, finding it hard to deny such a plea from a close friend.

    
_Names_ , he told Chaltier.   _Places_ , Chaltier had responded. 

 

  
_I am the Guide_ , Chaltier adds simply when he reaches the end. 

  
_...But I am also flawed and human_ , he continues, after a lengthy internal debate.

  
_So I leave you with the secrets of my core.  If we have souls, Dymlos, I cannot preserve mine here. So instead, I leave you also with the secrets of my heart, that they may be known and preserved. None other to whom they are privy remain alive, so I entrust their memory to you._

 

  
Chaltier does not know how many hours it took, the task of recording his hopes, his dreams, his ambitions, his regrets - his _desires_.  Finally, he closes it with a short sentence of four words, followed by two names.   

  
Perhaps it was selfish, hoping to have preserved some piece of himself this way, not knowing what awaited.  Perhaps not. 

 

  
He returns to the task of finishing his replacement, so that Dymlos could finish the mission.

 

Dymlos is angry.  

 

"You are _infuriating_. You do what you want, just like always.  Let me HELP you!"

 

Chal just gives a sad little laugh. "I'm not worth it.  What if this happens to YOU? Then the entire mission is compromised, because you got _sentimental_?  Let it go, Dymlos.  Please. You're distracting me."

 

"I will not!  If I had fists, I would punch you, I'll have you know."

 

That earns a decidedly more merry chuckle from Chaltier. "Well. I'm rather glad you _don't_ have fists, then, all things being equal."

 

Dymlos goes quiet for many days after that, though it doesn't last.

"So... that's it? You're just going to give up?"

 

"I am _not_ giving up," Chal replies evenly. "I am mitigating the damage to the extent and utmost of my ability.  Forgive me if that extent isn't quite as impressive as yours.  I'm just a diplomacy android who was re-purposed into a weapon.”

 

"Don't you _dare_.  You were always more than ' _just_ ' anything.  That's why Harold was special."

 

"Harold was brilliant," Chal agrees calmly, still typing at mach speed. "That's why I'm not going to risk you. She's probably the only person in the galaxy brilliant enough to fix us that far down, and she's gone."

 

"You won't know if you don't try. That's also essentially the definition of giving up, I might add. Refusing to _try_."

 

"If you say so," Chal murmurs. "I always thought it had more to do with letting go of whatever desire or ambition you had to start with.  In _that_ sense, I have _never_ given up, nor do I intend to. Even if I won't be here to witness the results."

 

Dymlos has trouble refuting that.

 "Well.  Point taken, I suppose."  

 

Chal tries not to feel smug over the concession.

 

"...How long?"  Dymlos finally asks.

 

Chal doesn't need to ask for clarification.

 

"...Not much," Chal admits, his hands finally stilling on the keyboard after what had likely been days.  He stands stiffly, his hydraulics and servos not responding smoothly anymore.  He walks over to the fabricator, to the parts he's just printed, and starts to assemble a small machine.

It is rudimentary at best, but it has articulated joints and manipulators, in case of a catastrophic failure of some kind.  Such a scenario would necessitate physically throwing emergency switches or performing physical repairs in areas of Dymlos that Dymlos himself cannot access.

 

"It's ugly, but it will have to do," Chal sighs.

 

"Ugly? The only ugly thing about it is why it is needed in the first place," Dymlos mutters. Even without a face, his tone coming across the speakers gives the impression of a bitter smile.

 

"There's... one more thing," Chal whispers, and when he stands this time, a simple motion that requires a frightening amount of effort, Dymlos realizes it might be the last.

 

Even Chal's voice synthesizer is beginning to malfunction. 

 

"Dymlos.  The vault. Please," he breathes, the sound crackling like an antique radio.

 

Without a word, a series of thick steel shields are withdrawn from a panel in the center of the bridge floor.  Stiffly, Chal disconnects his secondary core and sets it within the recess now revealed. 

"Wishful thinking, maybe.  M-  Memory backup."

 

Dymlos grunts in sudden understanding.

"If we find someone brilliant enough, we might be able to restore you."

 

Chal doesn't answer. Instead, he lowers himself jerkily- not into the pilot's seat, but the one next to it.

"Pre.... emptively," Chal rasps, "I think I...." (static) "-will b.. ...be... retiring... while..."

 

"While there's still something left of you," Dymlos finishes quietly.

 

Chal can't nod, so he closes his eyes in acknowledgement.  After a moment, he reopens them with some effort. Dymlos has activated the hologram projector on the bridge and is sitting beside him (an utterly pointless action for a hologram), just for the sake of keeping him company.

 

 

"It's been a long road," Dymlos murmurs.

 

"Very," Chal agrees.

 

"Sleep, Chaltier," Dymlos murmurs.  "I hope to see you at the end of it, nonetheless."

 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> (This, while very different from the present iteration of the Destiny Star AU, is the _original_ version of _**Destiny Star.**_  This scenario is that of the dream which _inspired_ the thing that became the Destiny Star AU.  There is no Leon or Stahn present- nobody, in fact, but Chaltier and Dymlos. Chal is still an android, and Dymlos is still a self-aware ship/AI. The two of them have been sent on some lonely, distant, but vital task/mission that lasts YEARS and takes them far, far away from friendly/known systems.  Unfortunately, and by some unknown cause, Chaltier is slowly becoming corrupted- his software, his core, is beginning to malfunction.)   


End file.
